Some thoughts along the way

What Churches can learn from Apple pt. 2

Currently Apple is taking an incredible risk. the iPhone. They first risked big by being themselves and operating their own OS. they know they aren’t going to appeal to everyone, but they also know that they people who OSx will always love OSx.

Then they took a big risk when they jumped into the Music player market. There are many decent MP3 players out there, most of them have more features than the iPod but Apple didn’t want feature creep so they released a simple, elegant, easy to use product that became, in all honesty, the industry standard.

And now with the iPhone they are probably taking their biggest risk to date by entering the oversaturated phone market. But they are coming with the same elegance and seemingly easy user interface and they are going full force into the phone market with an incredible product. But what if the iPhone bombs. What if it’s too expensive, or the fact that there is only one carrier using it inhibits people from buying it at all. What if it fails? Itg’s going to be on incredible failure if it doesn’t work.

The important Question though is, “Is Apple worried about failure?” And the honest answer from everything I’ve read and everything that I’ve seen is no. It seems to mee that Apple is more concerned about playing it safe then they are about taking risks. Safe is easy, risk is down right terrifying. But in the midst of that risk, what valuable lessons can you learn? And what do you lose if you don’t risk it all? everything.

The church has a reputation for playing it safe, for not being willing to risk or change because there is to much uncertainty in change and risk, and that’s the way it’s always been done. That kind of thinking is completely detrimental to any organization, and for the church it shows a complete lack of faith in the God who called us to reach the world.

As a church what are we risking everyday? What are we risking every year? I’m not saying that we should be wreckless and live on the edge and constantly be doing stupid stunts or whatever. But we can’t do things the way they’ve always been done anymore. Every church needs their iPhone, the thing that they are willing to risk everything over, it’s that next big goal, it’s the hurdle, the building project, the outreach strategy.

Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell can’t overcome it. Well we need to be risky enough to approach the gates of hell so that we can advance the Kingdom of God.

Seth Godin says, “Playing it safe is Risky.” Being Risky at least has the potential for forward progress.